Review: One Among Men by Connie Almony

One Among Men by Connie Almony, is a romantic suspense novel in which the female protagonist, Samantha (Sam) Hart, manages to become the resident director for an all male dorm at the fictional Maryland State University.  She had originally applied for a similar position for the university's female dormitory, and cannot understand how she ended up with the assignment to Calvert Hall which houses 500 male students.  Besides earning her graduate degree, she must oversee a staff of assistants as part of her duties in managing Calvert Hall and its inhabitants, which at times, requires her to discipline residents who break the dormitory rules, end up overly inebriated, or use banned substances on site.  She finds it challenging to win and maintain the respect of the male residents who don't regard her in the same way as they would towards a male resident director.  On top of that, there is a rapist loose on the campus who the police are trying to apprehend and arrest.    

Chris Johnson, a music major, and one of the resident students who also has a job working as a go-to fix-it guy for the university's Facilities Department, meets Samantha when he comes to check on the outlets in her apartment. Actually, it would probably be more accurate to say that he meets...and blocks... her elbow to his gut, and a palm thrust in his face, in addition to backing away from a stomp meant to crush his foot.  It takes a few minutes to convince her that he is not the rapist.

Sam is not the only one who is caught off guard by the other's appearance.  Chris can't believe that the university is actually putting a female in charge of a building filled with college-aged men who would see her more as meat rather than as a serious authority figure.  However, as the days and weeks, pass, he becomes intrigued and fascinated with her; he can see that she cares about the residents in the dorm.

Sam can't quite figure Chris out.  Once she recovers from the scare of their first meeting, she senses something different about him; he seems older and more mature than the rest of the students at Calvert Hall.  She also wonders about his ability to block all the self defense moves that her uncle, a police officer, had taught her.  The looks and words of encouragement that he gives her contrast with his seemingly irresponsible behavior; he hangs out with the resident drug dealer at Calvert Hall, and consumes huge quantities of alcohol every night.  Rumours start to fly about him selling for the drug dealer, but she can't stop her attraction to him.  She is also puzzled by the alternation of warmth and distance in his behavior towards her.

Chris also appears to be quite a mystery to us as readers.  We are privy to his thoughts; we know that he has secrets to hide and that he wants to resume another life that he once led.  We also know that he harbors anger against his father, who used drugs and abandoned his family in order to pursue a career in music.  He is also a bit resistant to the Gospel, although Preacher (aka Clive), one of Sam's assistants, has been sharing the message with him.  Preacher knows that there definitely something strange about Chris.  He sees that Chris is a leader, yet follows a known drug dealer.  He is also aware that Chris has been looking out for Sam's safety and has taken measures to keep that from being made widely known. 

Throughout the first half of the novel, the author drops a trail of crumbs, hinting about what Chris is really doing.  We are finally informed outright about this midway through the novel, and by this time we realize that Chris is facing battles on several fronts, in his relationship with the drug dealer, in distancing himself from Sam, whom he is finding harder to resist, and in facing the challenges that Preacher keeps tossing at him over issues of faith in the Lord.  Will Chris survive with both his physical and spiritual lives secure?  Will he be able to convince Sam to accept him romantically when she finds out what he really is?

At first, I wasn't quite sure if the central plot of the novel was going to involve the capture of the rapist, but instead, it really is about Chris and what is happening to him spiritually.  Sam impresses Chris with how she lives out her Christian life in spite of all the resistance to her leadership at Calvert Hall by its residents.  Conversations with Preacher, and lots of tunes from the band, Third Day, help Chris to come to a place where he is open to attending a church to see what Christianity is about. 

I thought that One Among Men, for a self published novel, was pretty good.  I admire how the author laid out the plot and how she resolved most of the plot threads.  The novel is written from several third person points of view, although the two major ones are those of Sam and Chris.  There is quite a large cast, but it is fairly easy to keep track of who is who, and what their significance is to the story.  I felt that most of the characters, even the nasty ones, were fairly believable, although the character of the drug dealer, Drake Dixon, might have had a touch of being a little over the top in his nastiness and unpleasantness, but this didn't really detract from the story. 

The novel also offers a look at campus life, especially what might happen in an all male dorm, besides the issues of drug and alcohol abuse, and how some college aged men might view women. 

I enjoyed reading One Among Men, and hope to read more about life at Maryland State University in the sequels, An Insignificant Life, and Flee From Evil.

Kindle Unlimited: A Reader's Smorgasbord or Not?

A few months ago, I signed up for Kindle Unlimited and took advantage of their thirty day trial.  It helped that all the historical romances of a particular author were offered on Kindle Unlimited, and I plowed through all of them.  After going through those titles, I then started looking around for other historicals to read, and I've found enough to keep me occupied for a total of four months.  I decided last week to end my subscription to this particular service, although I might sign up again at another time in the future.

On the surface, Kindle Unlimited looks as if it offers a fantastic deal:  over 750,000 titles on any device for $9.99/month.  It is essentially a lending library.   The user must subscribe to it in order to have access to its titles.  Only 10 books can be checked out at a time.  If an additional book is desired, one of the previous 10 must be returned.  Amazon keeps track of the titles that are borrowed, and can even bookmark the location at which a reader stops in the book, for future reference, if one borrows the book again.  The borrowed titles can stay in your library for as long as you subscribe to the service.

I must confess that I really milked out the number of books that I read for the first month and a half that I was using the service, because during that time I read almost 2-3 novels in a day.  Yes, you read that correctly.  I, ah, (clears throat sheepishly) sort of put the rest of my life on hold for a few weeks to go through that particular author's catalogue.  My excuses were that these books were on the short side, I had a free month with Kindle Unlimited, and that I wouldn't be able to find all of her titles available altogether in one location, even in a public library, as I could find them at that time on Amazon.  Also, I had the impression that the titles would only be up for an extremely limited amount of time before being rotated out and being replaced by other offerings.  It was too much of a temptation to resist, so my regular life got pre-empted.  I got through most of her backlist during that time, but I probably could have read her books at a more leisurely pace, because her titles are still offered on the Kindle Unlimited library four months later. 

I haven't reviewed any of that particular author's titles on the blog; I had considered it for awhile, but decided not to.  However, I did read some books from Kindle Unlimited which I reviewed for the blog.  The Heirs of Anton series, including Ekaterina, Nadia, Marina, and Oksana (written by Susan May Warren, and Susan K. Downs) were some titles which I read during my four month experiment with the service.  I found some other titles which I did not review such as the Squeaky Clean Mystery Series by Christy Barritt, the Seasons of Hope Series by Jessica R. Patch, and the Pacific Shores Series by Lynette Bonner.  I enjoyed Straight and True: A Regency Novella by Justice Joy. 

However, as I mentioned before, just because those titles were offered at the time that I read them, does not mean that the titles are still available, and if they are, they might not be available at some future date.  Kindle Unlimited adds and removes titles periodically, but I haven't figured out what sort of schedule exists for this.  When I first heard of Kindle Unlimited, there were a number of titles by Susan May Warren that were available through the library such as ones belonging to the Christiansen Family Series, but by the time I signed up for the service a number of months later, they were no longer available. 

My experience with Kindle Unlimited has also been limited mainly to the romance section.  I've read a couple of titles outside of that category, perhaps from the Science Fiction and Fantasy category, but most of my selections were from historical and contemporary romance.  I've come to the point where I have read most of what I would be interested in unless there is a change soon in the selection of titles to choose from.   There isn't a huge dearth of titles that are by best selling authors, although at the time of this writing there are titles available by J. K. Rowling and Suzanne Collins.  The experience has given me a chance to read authors and titles that I've probably wouldn't have considered reading before.  However, there have been titles that are both offered on Kindle Unlimited and on Kindle's freebie list (the latter has a quicker turnover in title availability compared to the former).  If you are patient enough, a title might show up on the freebie list and you can download the book without subscribing to Kindle Unlimited.

Would I recommend Kindle Unlimited to someone else?  The answer is:  I'm not sure if I would give an outright, "yes," or,  "no."  For me to say, "yes," it would depend on what is currently available on the borrowing list, and how many titles I could get through in a month.  Frankly, my opinion is that in most categories, my local public library has a more attractive selection of books to choose from. Kindle Unlimited caught me this time because it presented practically the entirety of a particular author's historical backlist that was and is still not available to me through the public library.  After reading through that backlist, I found that frequently, I would check out a book, and them promptly return it because I didn't feel engaged enough to continue reading it.  I suspect that this is partly because many of the selections available on Kindle Unlimited in its fiction department are by self published authors whose work may not be as closely scrutinized as if they would be if they worked with a traditional publishing house.  In that case, their books would likely go through a more stringent editorial process checking for grammatical and factual errors.  Spending $9.99/month for borrowing privileges over books that are lacking in readability just doesn't make sense to me.  However, there are some gems and interesting books that are available; you just have to dig for them.  Also, I did find some authors whose work I will look out for in the future. 

As I mentioned before, the number of titles that I could get through a month would also play a significant factor as to whether I sign up for the service again in the future.  I'm used to free library services (I've been spoiled by the public library system here, although, technically, it's not really free because of taxes), so if I spend money on books, I would like having permanent access to it.  I'd have to judge whether the money would be better spent on a single title that I'd own and can read anytime in the future, versus taking the opportunity offered by Kindle Unlimited.  Ideally, I think that I'd like to be able to borrow at least 8 to 12+ titles each month that I couldn't borrow elsewhere, and yes, there are titles offered on Kindle that are not available through the public library.  This number to justify subscribing to the service may differ with other readers because there really are other ways to get access to books they want to read. 

I appreciated having my experience with Kindle Unlimited, but think that I won't regret ending my subscription for now.  If the service sounds interesting to you, try the free one-month trial and see for yourself if Kindle Unlimited is for you.  At this time, Kindle Unlimited is available through Amazon in the U.S., the U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Mexico, and Canada.

Review: Sex at First Sight: Understanding the Modern Hookup Culture by Richard E. Simmons III

I must confess that the title of the book, Sex at First Sight, by Richard E. Simmons III caught my attention because of its provocative title.  I found it to be quite similar in purpose and tone as other books that tackle sexuality from a Christian perspective, in that it makes an argument for saving sex exclusively for marriage. 

The book describes the hookup culture that exists now on college campuses, and the factors that have brought this about, such as pornography, alcohol abuse, peer pressure, changes in moral standards, and hedonism.   This is followed by a discussion on the consequences of hooking up.  The author then covers the meaning and purpose of sex from a biblical perspective.  The question of whether it is healthy to repress desires is addressed, although the reader is challenged to view the situation as an opportunity to make a joyful sacrifice as opposed to viewing it as a deprivation.  Finally, the question of, "Why are we here?" is asked and connected with a discussion on finding our purpose for living in God, which would influence all aspects of our lives, including our sexuality.

I found the book to be a bit brief, but still informative.  The discussion on pornography was enlightening, even though it was covered over a few pages.  The ease of access to porn through the internet, and the impact that porn has on the expectations and behavior of people struck me as being very true.   I also found the description of the physiological effects of sexual experiences on the limbic system to be interesting.  Although Mr. Simmons frequently references two other authors, Donna Freitas, and Dannah Gresh, he has put together a book which he hopes, "will serve as a guide to students and young adults to help them think clearly about their own sexuality."     


Disclaimer:  I was given a copy of "Sex at First Sight:  Understanding the Modern Hookup Culture," from NetGalley in exchange for a review.  All opinions stated in this review are mine.

Review: Hidden Agenda by Christy Barritt

Hidden Agenda, by Christy Barritt, was released under Harlequin's Love Inspired Suspense line in March 2015.  I picked up this title because I liked Ms. Barritt's novel, Dubiosity, which I reviewed earlier in January of this year. 

The protagonists in Hidden Agenda are Bailey Williams, a home care nurse, and Ed Carter, a CIA agent. They are brought together by the death of Ed's father, when Ed returns to Smuggler's Cove, the island which his father retired to after a lifelong career with the State Department.  Bailey is less than impressed with the son who did not make it home in time for his own father's funeral.  She isn't even certain of Ed's identity, because Mr. Carter, Ed's father, did not keep any photos of Ed in his home.  She had been told that Ed is a lawyer, but he doesn't seem to behave or act like one.  Ed, who is convinced that his father's death was actually a murder, is suspicious of Bailey, wondering if she played any part in Mr. Carter's death.  One of Mr. Carter's friends had left Ed a cryptic message, but had died under mysterious circumstances, just as his father had. 

As the novel progresses, the attraction between Bailey and Ed grows, but several factors prevent them from trusting each other.  Ed needs to search through his father's belongings to find out if his dad was hiding classified information on his estate, and wonders why Bailey is remaining at Smuggler's Cove even though her duties towards his family are finished.   Bailey has been threatened several times by an unknown assailant who also promises to hurt and kill her relatives if she does not help him to recover secret information that Mr. Carter has hidden away on his estate.  She is also warned not to tell Ed about the threats, otherwise her family will be harmed.  Ed, who has been burned before by an ex-girlfriend who turned out to be a spy, senses that Bailey is holding back information from him and continues to wonder if she is working for the people that were responsible for getting his father killed, even though he gets to know her character better.  His mistrust doesn't encourage Bailey to ask him for help against the threats that she is facing in spite of her developing feelings for him.  Will Ed and Bailey be able to trust and help each other?  Will they find out who killed Mr. Carter, and will they find what he hid on his property?

I found this novel to be fairly suspenseful and fast paced.  There are secrets, danger, intrigue, espionage, death threats, and attempts against people's lives, unsuccessful, and successful.  I would also say that there seems to be no character that is wasted; each seems to play a fairly significant role in the plot, however minor it may be.  I thought that this made the novel tightly written and I appreciated the development of the plot and the economic use of the characters that were introduced in the story.  I did not guess the identities of the antagonists; I don't know if this was just laziness or fuzziness in my thinking, but when they were revealed, I had a moment of, "Yeah,...of course...that makes sense...," for one of them, and for the other, I appreciated the author's use of another character that had been fleetingly introduced earlier in the story and of whom I had not expected to hear about again. 

I enjoyed reading Hidden Agenda, and will probably read more of Ms. Barritt's work in the future.

Review: Oksana by Susan May Warren with Susan K. Downs

Oksana, by Susan May Warren with Susan K. Downs is the fourth novel belonging to the Heirs of Anton series.  The series follows the faith journey of four generations of a Russian family.  Since the series goes backward in time starting with the latest generation, and since this is the fourth book, we have come to the start of the family saga.  I began this novel wondering who Anton was, but it soon became apparent after delving into a couple of chapters that I should have been asking who Oksana was.

It is March 3rd, 1917.  Anton Klassen accidently meets Tsar Nicholas II in the forest when the train that he is on makes a temporary stop and he steps off the train momentarily in search of some food.  The Tsar asks Anton to take on the care of a family servant, Oksana, until the political situation becomes safer, which would permit Oksana's return in service to the Imperial Family.  The Tsar also entrusts to Anton the care of the Crest of St. Basil until his mission is finished.  Accompanying Oksana is another servant of the Tsar's household, Yulia Petrovna, and her brother, Monk Timofea, who has come from the monastery at Pskov to help Anton escort the two women to safety. 

Anton doesn't know quite what to make of Oksana when he meets the servant.  He is impressed by her beauty and is puzzled by her regal manner, her fine clothes and her ability to converse in several languages.  When the party reaches Petrograd, Anton expects to receive orders soon from the Tsar, directing him to return Oksana to the Imperial Family, but instead finds that political upheaval has spread to this city.  Yulia is attacked.  The two women fear that the intended target may have actually been Oksana.  They realize that it would be best for Yulia and Oksana to separate to make it more difficult to track Oksana. In fear for her safety, Oksana asks Anton if he would be willing to enter into a marriage in name only, so that her identity can be disguised and so that it would allow them to travel together without raising the suspicions of others. Because servants of the Royal Family are not allowed to be married, they would need to have the marriage annulled when the Tsar sends for Oksana.  Oksana is confident that the Tsar, who is the head of the Orthodox Church, will allow this to happen. 

Just before the marriage, Anton is given a verse by the Lord:  Psalm 100:5, which says, "For the Lord is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations."  It gives him the confidence to take a step of faith and to enter into a marriage with Oksana, even though he knows that she is looking to leave it in the future.  It is a verse that both Anton and Oksana need to cling to, because Oksana is not who she says she is, and the political turmoil caused by the Russian Revolution brings a huge wave of destruction and heartache into their lives.

I had been prepared to read another romantic tragedy, such as the one that I found in Marina, which is the third volume of the Heirs of Anton.  However, I was satisfied with how Oksana concluded for Anton and Oksana, except for what happened to their child, Marina. 

The author also points out in one of her notes that Oksana is a "What If?" story, and is "not a chronicle of history but a fictional parallel to historical events."  Oksana was published in 2005, and since then, history has revealed what really happened to the person who was represented by the character of Oksana in the novel. 

Once I realized who Oksana really was supposed to be, I experienced quite a bit of a reshuffling in my mind about who Marina, Nadia, and Ekaterina were.  I wonder, though, if readers will be the only ones who know what special lineage they have, because after reading Oksana, it becomes apparent that although these women may know of their connection to their forefather, Anton, they may not really know who Oksana was unless Timofea told someone or if Anton made note of it in his journal, which has been referred to throughout the series.  This journal, as Anton explains, is a record of his spiritual journey, to be left for his heirs and descendants, so that they might learn from his experiences. 

I enjoyed reading the series as a reverse chronology.   I think that the revelation of who Oksana really is has a greater impact when read in this order, but it would be interesting to read the series in a forward chronological order and see how different that experience is. 

Review: Marina by Susan May Warren with Susan K. Downs

Marina, by Susan May Warren with Susan K. Downs, is the third novel belonging to the Heirs of Anton series.  The series covers several generations of a Russian family and their faith in the Lord.  Marina covers the love story of Marina (Mara) Antonovna Klassen Vasileva, a Russian partisan fighter, and Edward Neumann, an American OSS agent who has been assigned to help rout the Nazi invaders from the USSR during the Second World War. 

Both Marina and Edward have had significant losses that have left them wounded in their hearts.  Marina is an orphan who lost both her natural parents as a child, and now as an adult,  she has also lost her husband and home to the Nazis.  She fears that she has also lost her unborn baby.  Her faith in the Lord is in shreds, and she renames herself, Mara (meaning, "bitterness"), as Naomi did in the Old Testament Book of Ruth.  She joins a partisan group and becomes an excellent sniper.  

Edward wrestles with guilt; it appears that every partisan group that he has assisted in the war against the Nazis has found death and destruction, rather than freedom.  He is especially guilt ridden over the death of Katrina, his fiancée, who Nazis executed after following him to her location.  Edward escaped capture, and Katrina's death has left him reluctant to accept help from partisan groups in the countries that he works in.  He is afraid that he will lead them to their deaths.  Unlike Marina, Edward still has a faith that clings to the Lord. 

Marina and Edward meet when he comes into contact with her partisan group.  He plans to blow up a bridge on a Nazi supply route, but quickly comes to realize that he cannot carry out his mission without the help of the partisans.  The time spent in each other's company leads Marina and Edward to fall in love with each other as they learn to trust and rely on each other for support.  Will Marina regain her faith in the Lord with Edward's help?  Will Edward be able to let go of his guilt so that he can open his heart to love again? 

Psalm 100:5 is a significant verse in the Heirs of Anton.  It says, "For the Lord is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations."  We can partially see how the truth of this is carried out in this installment of this series, although we do not see the completion of what the Lord will do for this family in Marina.  Our protagonists must trust and wait on the Lord for the future.  They are also required to make very difficult and costly sacrifices.  I want to say this:  I think that the character of Edward Neumann is truly a saint.  In my opinion, Marina gets pretty close to being a romantic tragedy.

I also have a minor quibble about the cover.  Marina is supposed to be a blonde, but the woman on the cover looks like a brunette to me.

I would not consider Marina to be a stand alone novel.  I think that Ekaterina, the first book of the series, has a stronger link in the continuity with Marina than Nadia, which is the  second book.  Several questions raised in Ekaterina are answered in Marina, but if you read only Marina, you will be left with questions that can only be answered in Ekaterina.  Having said that, there are still other questions that haven't been answered in any of the books offered so far in the continuity.  Hopefully, these will be addressed in the final book, Oksana.

Review: Nadia by Susan May Warren with Susan K. Downs

Nadia, by Susan May Warren with Susan K. Downs, is the second installment of the Heirs of Anton series.  The series covers four generations of a family of Russian background and their faith.  Nadia is the immediate prequel to Ekaterina, and is the story of Kat's parents, Hope Nadezhda (Nadia) Moore and Michael (Mickey/Misha) Moore, who are both spies for the CIA. 

The story is set in the USSR, in 1970.  Hope has covertly entered Russia with the purpose of freeing her husband, Mickey, who had been imprisoned by the KGB and is scheduled to be executed in a matter of days.  She is on her own without support from her father, spymaster Edward Neumann, who, along with the rest of the CIA in the United States, believe Mickey to be a traitor who betrayed two of their sleeper spies who were stationed in Russia.  There are also the rumors that Mickey had betrayed their marriage by having an affair with another spy.  Hope can't bring herself to believe that Mickey would betray their people, but she has another reason for wanting to get Mickey out of Russia; she needs him to be a father to their infant daughter, Ekaterina, even though she has doubts about his marital faithfulness.  Mickey is unaware of the existence of Ekaterina; he has no knowledge of what had happened to Hope after his arrest. 

With the help of friend who is a KGB mole, Aranoff Chornov, Hope springs Mickey from prison, but they narrowly escape capture when their escape route out of the country is blocked by KGB agents.  Will Hope and Mickey be able to evade capture and make it out of the Soviet Union? Is Mickey a double agent who betrayed his own people?  Or was he betrayed and framed by another?

One of the spiritual themes that is prevalent in Nadia is the need for both our protagonists to "let go and let God (do as He wills)."  They need to surrender their own plans and agendas and trust God for whatever outcomes will result, even though what God has in plan for them may not be entirely clear. Hope is determined to get Mickey safely out of the USSR so that she and Ekaterina can have Mickey play the role of a father at home in the States.  However, she runs into the brick wall that is Mickey's desire to make an impact as spy who has served his country well.  Can she leave Mickey behind so that he can make his own way with his life and fulfill his career objectives?  As for Mickey, can he give up his desire to find significance in making a difference for his country by serving as a spy, or can he settle for a quiet and less exciting life as a father to Ekaterina in the States?  In addition to that dilemma, his struggle also involves his desires to exonerate himself and get revenge on whoever betrayed him.

While our heroine and hero work these things out, they continue to encounter danger and intrigue, including the mysterious appearance of Hope's father, Edward Neumann, in the USSR.  One of the reasons for Edward's appearance is to support the continuity between the books in the series. There are other hints of information that are mentioned in Nadia that are revealed more fully in Ekaterina, but there are still puzzles and mysteries regarding the Heirs of Anton series that are still unanswered even in this second installment.   

I enjoyed the novel for the espionage story that it was.  There are enough tidbits provided so that I'm interested enough to find out what happens in the remainder of the series, which includes Marina and Oksana, parts three and four of the Heirs of Anton.